Now Giants' job gets decidedly harder

With the cream- puff part of the Giants' schedule now behind them, it was time for Tom Coughlin to look ahead to the gantlet awaiting his team. But he wasn't quite ready to think about the next nine weeks. Or even next week.

"Can we enjoy this one first?" Coughlin quipped after his team barely managed to hold off the 0-7 Dolphins in a 20-17 comeback win yesterday. "Perhaps we can talk about that another time."

OK, Coach. Twenty-four-hour rule in effect. After that, it's all about the treacherous schedule that lies ahead, starting with Sunday's game in New England against the Patriots, the following week's game against the resurgent 49ers on the road . . . and on and on and on.

There are no gimmes left for the Giants, who fattened up on the early-season schedule and got to 5-2 by beating mostly teams with losing records. Four of those five wins came against teams that now have a combined record of 5-23. And their two losses came against teams with a combined record of 5-9.

So give Coughlin a day to soak in another week in first place in the NFC East. After all, considering the monster schedule ahead, it's no lock that they'll stay there the rest of the way. That's not to say it can't be done, just that it will require a herculean effort to make it happen.

One thing that's certain, though: When they step up in class, the Giants will need to play substantially better than they did Sunday. Having to claw your way back at home against an 0-7 team is one thing. But facing a string of nine games that includes four teams currently in first place, the Cowboys twice, the Eagles and the Jets means improvement is a must.

"Obviously, we can play better," said Justin Tuck, who combined with Mathias Kiwanuka on a huge third-down sack of Matt Moore. "Obviously, our schedule gets tough. We'll see where we are real soon."

Actually, where they are right now is about as good as they could have envisioned, especially given the preseason roster turmoil and injury problems. After the loss of several key starters to free agency and injuries, 5-2 is a mighty fine trade-off. The Redskins are fading fast after experiencing quarterback problems, and when the Eagles beat the Cowboys Sunday night, it gave the Giants a two-game lead over each of their NFC East opponents.

So all things considered, Coughlin and his players have earned the right to bask in the midseason glow of first place. Then again, they were six minutes from what would have been a devastating upset loss.

They trailed Miami 14-3 late in the first half thanks to a gaggle of defensive errors that brought back memories of Moore's last start against the Giants. Remember him leading Carolina to a 41-9 embarrassment in the 2009 regular-season finale, the game that essentially knocked the Giants out of playoff contention in the last game at Giants Stadium?

Fortunately for the Giants, they closed to within four points with eight seconds to play in the first half when Eli Manning hit Mario Manningham on a 7-yard fade route. And they closed it out with 10 fourth-quarter points to finish off the nail-biting win.

Not pretty. Huge nonetheless.

"You never want to be in position where you're at the end of the year looking back," Kiwanuka said. "We've been there before, where we've had games we lost we felt we could have won, and then we have to wait for somebody else to lose."

It's what the Giants experienced last December after blowing a 31-10 lead against the Eagles and then seeing their playoff hopes vanish in the next two weeks. "That's a miserable feeling," Kiwanuka said. "If we can take care of it now, why not?"

Said Tuck: "New England is a great football team, and we know all about them. We're going to have to play a whole lot better."